


Crimes of Passion

by HurricanesatDawn



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Deathfic, M/M, Tragic Ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-28
Updated: 2012-04-28
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:12:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,919
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HurricanesatDawn/pseuds/HurricanesatDawn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s not - he’s not planning to strangle him. Just - he just needs him to shut up. To stop talking for one goddamned second.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Crimes of Passion

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shwatsonlocked](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shwatsonlocked/gifts).



It started out with a picture. Just a few little photographs were enough to set out a chain reaction a kilometre long. He shouldn’t have been able to find them, shouldn’t have had them given to him. But that was the whole point. The giver knew exactly what he was doing when he used his dying breath to press an envelope into the hands of his murderer.

Curiosity killed the cat, after all. Or in this case, the tiger. He really couldn’t help but open it. Not because it was a dying man’s last wish. No, he’d only valued that when attached to the dead man in question.

What else would a man with enough anger and control issues to fill an entire continent do when given something that he ‘needed to see’? Of course Sebastian opened the paper and pulled out the photos. The photographs of James in another man’s bed. In another man’s arms. Being fucked by another man’s cock.

He dropped them like they were on fire, stumbling away from them in shock. It was the only way he knew to react. It barely even penetrated his brain at first. It just didn’t make sense. James. His James had betrayed him. _‘But what? How? Why? why would he even do that?_ ’ Not even only himself, but to Sebastian. James had promised everything to him. His heart, his soul, his life. That’s what their vows had meant, yeah? _‘I am his and he is mine._ ’ Seven little words that should mean the world to them both.

It took him time to collect himself, to stop staring blindly at the corpse laying against the far wall. When he finally came back to himself, the sun was beginning to set, darkness filling the warehouse. It was like he’d blacked out, lost time in his thoughts.

Still seething in rage, he kneels on the cement floor to retrieve the fallen photographs. He looks them over carefully, jaw clenched tight, looking for something, _anything_ that could lend hope to the possibility that they were faked, photoshopped.

He doesn’t find it. Doesn’t find anything but the chilling truth that James had not only been fucking another man behind his back but that it hadn’t even just been the once. The pictures told a story that seemed to span out months in their details.

He almost rips them to shreds at first, before thinking better of it. He needs proof, something solid to give James when he confronts him, demands answers. He needs something, some sort of reason or excuse. Hell, even just an honest to god apology would serve to do at least a little bit of good for him right now. He just - he just needs James to tell him why. Why Sebastian wasn’t enough for him. Why he’d been so willing to throw it all away so easily.

He hardly notices the rain pouring down down on his head as he makes his way out of the warehouse and into the taxi cab, thumbing his phone to send out a text to the cleanup crew. The envelope is tucked tightly into the inner pocket of his jacket now. The ride itself passes in a blur as Sebastian stares blearily out the window at the other cars whizzing past.

_‘Do the men inside them have partners that are cheating on them? Are they going home to find their spouses in bed with other people?’_

__The cab rolls to a stop outside his building. It takes a few moments and multiple demands for money before Sebastian registers it. He blindly tosses a few bills in the direction of the front seat and stumbles out of the car.

Hugging his gym bag to his chest, unconsciously trying to protect it from the downpour of rain, he slowly makes his way to the entrance to the building and goes inside. No one pays him any mind as he trudges past them to the elevator, up to the top floor.

It takes him multiple tries on the lock before he succeeds in opening the door, pushing his way inside. He’s dripping water onto the carpet from his hair, his drenched clothes, his muddy boots. He drops the bag by the side of the door and flicks the lock back into place.

“James? You home?” He has to use all the control in his body to stop his voice from cracking audibly on the last syllable. It hurts. It physically hurts to call it that right now. The sound of rustling comes from the back room, something being dropped and abandoned just before James appears in the hall, a grin on his face.

“Darling! Where have you been? You were supposed to be back hours ago.” James sidles up to him, wrapping his arms around Sebastian’s neck. Pouting at the lack of immediate reply, he pushing himself up on the balls of his feet to try and initiate a kiss.

James pulls away after a few seconds, a frown shifting to cover his face. “Sebby? Is something the matter?”

He lets out a snarl and pushes James out of his arms, away from him. Taking a deep breath to try to settle the anger that’s threatening to boil over the surface.

He opens his mouth to speak, to start his accusations, but nothing comes out. No words seem willing to form on his tongue now. Licking his lips, he changes his mind about his approach, moving his hand up to reach inside his jacket.

While pulling out the envelope, he quickly glances up and sees the hurt look written across James’ face. It’s tinted with barely concealed anger at having received such an obvious slight from Sebastian. He raises his other hand to stop whatever words are sure to come, and brings out the barely dampened paper.

“Open it. Tell me what’s inside.” He tosses it at James and takes another desperate breath, his words leaving no room for argument.

The quizzical look on James’ face melts away in an instant as he pulls back the paper sheath at the wrong end and the photographs spill out onto the floor. James’ face is pale now. Pale and utterly blank, empty of any sort of decipherable emotion.

At a quick look from him, James drops to a crouch on the floor to pick them up. Looking them all over with his head tilted to the side, his features start to shift again, falling into a smirk.

“Aw, baby. Are you jealous? Did it hurt your feelings?” James stands back up again, giggling as his fingertips play idly with one of the edges of the stack.

Sebastian’s eyes widen, startled by the lack of immediate denials.  _‘It doesn’t - no, it doesn’t make sense. James is supposed to deny it, lie about it, plead for forgiveness. Wh-why is he making it into a joke?’_

James moves back over to him, petting at his arms and playing up a smirk in his face. “What’re you gonna do, baby? You mad at me?”

_‘Does he - does he think that this isn’t really affecting him? Was all of this a joke to him? Does he think this is just a game?’_

“No, I’m not mad at all.” He plants an obviously fake smile on his face, snarling down at James’ face. “Why would I be mad? After all, it’s not like I found out that my _husband_ has been _fucking around behind my back!_ ”

“Oh come on now, pet. Don’t be like that.” James’ tone is entirely mocking now, his arms around Sebastian’s neck as he plays with the tips of his hair, his face a combination of a pout and a taunting smirk. “Did you actually expect me to only fuck you for the rest of my life? How boring!”

_‘It’s just - no, the words. They’re too much. How does it - how can he say that? Was it all a lie? But he swore - he promised himself. It’s - no.’_

Sebastian pushes him off again, physically restraining himself from slapping his face for the words. Those words. They hurt so much, like a knife in the back. He’d give his life for James in a heartbeat. He’d given up everything else to be with him. They were supposed to be _in love._ Wasn’t that why they got married? Because they _loved each other._ So why? _Why?_

The words that are falling out of James’ mouth now pass right over his head. He can’t hear them over the buzzing in his ears. It’s too much and now he can’t think straight. His hands move up of their own accord, reaching to wrap his fingers around James’ neck.

He’s not - he’s not planning to strangle him. Just - he just needs him to shut up. To stop talking for one goddamned second.

His hands close around that tiny little neck, so _fragile_ , and James chokes out a laugh.

“You gonna kill me, baby?” He snarls, teeth out to resemble that of a shark. “Are you gonna do it, you big pussycat?”

No, no, he can’t do this. He can’t. He pushes James forward, shoves him bodily against the wall and shakes him, thumbs pressing up into the bottom of his chin. He just - he needs to knock some sense into James. That’s all. Shake some sense into him until he realizes what he’s doing to them both and _fucking stops this idiocy._

__But James is still laughing, wasting what little air he has access to, to taunt him, to throw vicious little words at him. Telling him, _demanding that he do it. That he should just end it all and snap his neck. Isn’t that what you want, Sebastian? Wouldn’t that make it all better? Just snap my neck. I’m smaller than you. You can do it. Won’t take much. Just a little bit more pressure right there. Yes, just there. Do it, baby!_

And oh god, he can’t help it now as his hands tighten and he shoves James’ head backwards, hitting it cruelly against the wall. Maybe that’ll do it, yeah? Maybe that’ll be enough to shut him up.

But James is still talking, words are still spewing out of his mouth, his eyes bloodshot now and unfocused. All Sebastian can hear is the slurs in them, the words pass over his head in his blind rage and he does it again, knocks him back against the wall harder. Again and again, with more force each time, he keeps doing it.

Then the words stop. There’s nothing left but the silence in the flat and the echoing sound of a skull hitting wood. There’s yelling coming from the hallway now, someone’s shouting something indecipherable, banging on the door.

He drops James like his hands are on fire. The words have stopped. The lips are no longer moving. The eyes are still open, empty and lifeless. James crumples to the floor in a heap, blood oozing out from his head and down the wall.. His body - oh god, his body just lays there now. Still and dead.

Sebastian stares at it now, his own eyes going unfocused, mouth hanging open, breathing heavily.

They seem to break down the door, because suddenly there’s people filling the flat. Men in suits surrounding him and James. Pulling guns on him, telling him something, but he’s not sure. Can’t hear it clearly. All he can hear is those words echoing back at him. _‘Do it, baby. You can do it. I’m smaller than you. You can do it.’_


End file.
